Fair Territory: Dodgers want bullpen, Red Sox & Phillies trade plans

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Cal Raley went on to win and won a million dollars. Rtt Rooker, had he beaten cal Raley in the first round, might have been the guy to get a million. I thought this should have gotten a lot more attention. It was quite curious to me. Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with Alana Rizzo and Alana I would say the sport is still a glow from the All Star festivities, home run Derby, the All Star Game itself, the swing off, the use of abs. We've got a lot to talk about relative to the All Star Game, and of course we are going to look forward to the second half. Yeah.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: Ken, always good to be with you on this Thursday. Great to see you. It is a good time to be a baseball fan. We are on the cusp of the second half of the Major League Baseball regular season. But to your point, Ken, let's talk about the Midsummer Classic. What are your biggest takeaways from what you covered over the course of this week.

00:00:51
Speaker 1: The swing off. The swing off, to me, Alana was something that I never expected to like, and I loved it. And I loved it in part because I saw how much. The players loved it, and I wrote about this yesterday in The Athletic. These guys were so fired up they spilled out of the dugout they were cheering their teammates on. It was so cool from that perspective, and that alone, to me, was just so refreshing and so enlightening to see guys. We always ask them to act like they're playing a little kid's game. Don't forget you're playing a little kid's game and you're making all this money, and sometimes fans get frustrated when they don't. And yet in this situation, they acted like they were playing a little kid's game, and it was really cool to see. Now people have said, well, maybe use this for every game, a lot of the players were saying that, no, it's not something you would use for a regular season game, a postseason game, no chance. You have to decide those on the field properly. Even though you can argue that the Manfred Man and all that is not proper. It's been an improvement in the game in some ways, not all so for an All Star game. I thought it was great. I don't know that I would want to see it in any other circumstance. Than that.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: No, it would definitely less than the impact if it was every single game. But I love the fact, Ken, that an exhibition game that seemingly means nothing meant something at the end. You don't want the All Star Game to end in a tie. Justin Turner had mentioned this back in twenty twenty. I'm sure he's not the first person to mention it, but I remember this clearly, him saying, why don't we decide the All Star Game by a home run swing contest? And you can tell, as you mentioned that the players loved it. It mattered the National League one. So maybe an exhibition, but obviously it's an exhibition game for the fans, and the teams got into it as well. The players got into it also. Okay, let's move on to what actually matters on the field, and that's the second half of the season. Ken, you had a note to call him recently about the Los Angeles Dodgers perhaps being buyers at the deadline, specifically for bullpen arms. Tell me more all on it.

00:02:53
Speaker 1: We both know that President Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman built this team to be deadline proof. The thing he hates most is overpaying for players at the deadline and specifically overpaying for relievers. Well, guess what, the Dodgers, with their usual run of injuries, are going to need to overpay for a reliever. Now. Part of that is due to Tanner Scott being not nearly as effective as he was last season for Miami and San Diego. It's given him eight homers already and last year just all three. The other part is the injuries. Evan Phillips of course, is out for the season. They're expecting Blake Tryin in back this week or next week, I should say, and then they're expecting Michael Kopek to follow some time in August, and possibly Bruce dar graderol who has had shoulder surgery. He's coming off of that. But with pitchers coming off injuries, you never know exactly what they're going to give you. So yes, I do expect the Dodgers to be in the market for more bullpen help. It would be difficult to imagine them laying over Tanner Scott when they just gave him seventy two million dollars, but one if the Dodgers could get a big lded that can certainly pair him with Scott and be much more effective going about it that way.

00:04:07
Speaker 2: How much are bullpen arms? I know it seems a little bit of a ridiculous question, Ken, but how much are bullpen arms coveted? Right now? It seems like not just the Dodgers need relief core they need everybody seems to need it, especially those that are contending.

00:04:20
Speaker 3: Is that why the Dodgers have to overpay?

00:04:23
Speaker 1: Yes, and you're exactly right. Every team wants bullpen help, every contender, I should say, And the reason for that is bullpens are generally volatile. Very few relievers are trustworthy and consistent the entire year. But more than that, teams blow through their bullpens. As starters over the years have pitched fewer innings, the teams have become more reliant on their relievers, and by this time I can think of San Diego in particular, San Diego first team ever to put three relievers in the All Star Game. Tremendous, But they are running these guys down and it's not their fault. They play a ton of cl those games. Mike Schuldt is doing what he has to do. But they need relief, and I mean that in the literal sense, relief just to give their relievers a little bit more rest, a little bit more of a break. And that's just a team that has a very successful bullpen. You can think of all the teams that do not have successful bullpens, and they too want to get one of the deadline at least two.

00:05:22
Speaker 2: Part question for you, Ken, does Dustin May go to the bullpen as an option? And with the Tigers running away with the ALE Central, are the relievers on the other Ale Central teams up for grabs.

00:05:34
Speaker 1: Dustin May is an interesting question, and that kind of depends on the health of their starting pitchers and which of their starting pitchers are able to return. And they are expecting, of course Snell to come back on top of Glass now being back, so it would be an option for them in the AL Central. You mentioned that, and I wrote about that today. Manuel Class from the Guardians, Kate Smith perhaps to a lesser extent from the Guardians, and the two guys from the Twins, Duran and Griffin Jackson. All of these pitchers will be asked about the willingness, though, is a question the willingness of those teams to make such moves. Now we enter the post All Star Game period with the Twins just four games out of a wild card and the Guardians just four and a half. These next two weeks, not just for those teams, but for all of the bubble teams will be critical. They're going to have to decide who they are, what they want to do at the deadline, sell by by and sell So the Indians, I'm sorry. The Guardians also traditionally are a difficult team to deal with, and what I mean by that is they value their players a certain way and they stay disciplined to those values. They don't waver, and that alone will make it difficult to trade with them. For Class A. The Twins kind of a similar circumstance, and we just don't know where they are. Teams in the process of being sold. Do they want to buy, do they want to sell? I know a lot of people are fancying their players, but they could very well have a good two weeks a year and get right back in the thick of it too.

00:07:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, so much can happen over the course of the next fourteen games. One team probably that didn't want the All Star Break ken is the Boston Red Sox. On some kind of high right now going into the All Star Break. You've spoke about the Red Sox trade deadline approaching, or the Red Sox approaching the deadline rather on Tuesday' Spoul territory. Now on ninety eight point five, the sports have here in Boston. Tony Mazzarati responded.

00:07:28
Speaker 3: To what you had to say.

00:07:29
Speaker 1: Take a listen, ket Rolsenball says, now they don't even need a number two starter.

00:07:33
Speaker 4: Mess if he were here right now, I'd strangle him with his bow tie, is what I would do.

00:07:38
Speaker 1: He's out of his mind.

00:07:40
Speaker 4: So look, I mean, they've been on a nice stretch here. Gilito and BeO have been good of late. You really want to bank on that down the stretch in October. Wouldn't you rather have Geelito as your number four starter and BeO is your third guy? Go out and get Joe Ryan. Now you're talking now, you can match up with just about anybody. So this idea of like you know that they're already there. Let's not get stupid about it. And I love Kenny Kenny. I've learned a lot.

00:08:06
Speaker 1: From Kenny over the years. So you know just about the.

00:08:10
Speaker 4: Game on the field, of how teams build lineups and whatever. But no, you don't stop here with the young guys, they've got go out and get yourself a pitcher that can be here for the next two or three years and then and that gives your prospects time to develop. They just took what fourteen pictures in the draft or whatever the number was, So by yourself sometime, go get another.

00:08:31
Speaker 3: Guy, Ken, What is your response to the response?

00:08:37
Speaker 1: First of all, Tony and I are friends, and I've known Tony forever. He used to be a baseball writer before he obviously went over to the dark side of talk radio. Now I understand what he's saying, and I don't want to be misconstrued here, and maybe it's my own fault for being misconstrued. I did say at one point I believe they don't necessarily need a number two starter, but I clarified it in when I wrote today too Ideally, Yes, you want the best picture you can get. I'm just not sure the kind of picture that Tony's talking about and the ideal number two prototype is going to be available. And that's why I mentioned Charlie Morton as an alternative. I mentioned that on Fox Monday, mentioned it in my column today. And when I look at this and I look at Joe Ryan let's use the picture that Tony used as an example big market teams. Fans of big market teams, talk show radio hosts who work in markets with big market teams generally think the rest of the league operates at their disposal, that when they want a player from another team, a smaller market or mid market team, they can just go get them. I don't know that the Twins are going to want to trade Joe Ryan, and that's the key thing here. So if the Twins don't want to trade Joe Ryan and all these other teams that have theoretical number twos, and there may be a couple of them that even would factor into such a conversation, it's going to be difficult to do. So you may have to look at all their alternatives. And I would advise Tony that if he wants to strangle me with my bow tie, I probably would not be advisable for him to do.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, good call, I'll and I will make sure I go down to the radio station myself and stand up for you, Ken Rosenthal.

00:10:19
Speaker 3: How dare he? I'm very close to the station now.

00:10:22
Speaker 1: In terms of want, I don't bind it. I don't want anybody say anything. Pretty much but there was a I don't think it was exactly taken the right way. And again maybe that's on me. But what I'm saying again just to repeat, they don't necessarily need a number two. Ideally, Yes, I'm just wondering if they can get a number two. That's the issue.

00:10:44
Speaker 3: Good question that's going to be. That remains to be seen.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: All right, Much more to come on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal. We will be back right after this with Grill and Ken.

00:10:54
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00:10:59
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00:11:56
Speaker 3: That's awesome.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: All right.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: We have a great giveaway going on right now in our chatb group chat Thank You Notball Prove it guys, play our trivia game for a shot at winning an authentic Major League Baseball jersey of your choice. It's worth up to four hundred bucks. Here's how to enter. Sign up at foul Territory dot chat. Play trivia. You gotta crush it and you might win. We're picking one winner from the top ten scores at random. Deadline is July twentieth at eleven fifty nine pm Eastern. All right, can I love this because people get to ask you a question that's not something that we always get to do so, I appreciate it very much. And we're only taking chat BCC questions today, so make sure you get on Chat BCC.

00:12:39
Speaker 3: Join us.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: It's a free app. Download it. Join the conversation, all right. The first one is from armand he wants to know the swing off or Golden at bat which gets voted into the regular season in the future.

00:12:52
Speaker 1: Armand I would say neither, and I hope neither. Now. I love the swing off, but as we said at the top, it's not for every game. We don't want it deciding ties in the regular season or postseason. The golden at bat, for those who don't know what that is, that is the ability to bring back a player out of order late in the innings so he can take one at bat. So, for instance, Aaron Judge is scheduled to hit eighth in the ninth inning, Well, you use the golden in bat and you hit him in the ninth I don't think that's coming into the regular season anytime soon either. It would be interesting, and it's a concept that I kind of would like to see maybe in an All Star game format first, because the one thing that is different about baseball than say basketball or football is that you can't get the ball in the best player's hands, in this case, the bat in the best player's hands at the most critical moment of the contest. In football, you can do that. The quarterback has the ball, and basketball Steph Curry has the ball at the end or Lebron or whoever. So that is one thing that baseball doesn't have. But that is what makes baseball distinct and it should stay that way.

00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you.

00:13:59
Speaker 2: It's little bit gimmicky to have the swing off or the golden at bat in anything other than an exhibition game, but armand we appreciate the question. The next question from our chat BCC folks is coming from Sean Donovan. What do you see the Mariners buying Ken a bat?

00:14:16
Speaker 1: And it could be a corner infielder, it could be an outfielder, But they need more offense. Now their rotation has stabilized some. It's been a little bit more rocky than they anticipated, but I would expect that they're going to count that rotation and their bullpen to be good. What they want still is more offense. And they're an interesting team. They're a team that is right in the thick of the wildcard race. I want to see them put themselves in a position where they can get over the top here. They've been close a couple of times, right they made the playoffs. The one year I expect Jerry Depoto, their president of Baseball Operations, and Justin Hollander their GM, to be active. So we would probably see the Mariners doing at least one thing before the deadline.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: And Ken, this is a team in the Mariners that we always knew had great starting pitching, but now it seems like the offense is finally catching up. I mean, is this the year to really I mean, I know Jerry to Poto always goes for it, but is this the year to really go for it when it seems like it's the most complete team they've had in recent memory.

00:15:16
Speaker 1: I would agree with that, Alana. Now, the idea of really going for it is problematic this year because it doesn't seem like it's going to be a great group of players available, so there's only so much perhaps a team can do. But generally speaking, we always see a surprise or two at the deadline. Players that we don't expect to become available suddenly get traded. We've already seen one. Brian Baker from the Orioles. No one really thought he was going to be traded. I know he's not that prominent, but that's the idea. So things can happen and maybe Depoto or Aj Preler or Dave Dombrowski or one of these more aggressive, creative heads of baseball operations will do something big.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: All right, Jack Summers, who does a great job as one of the co hosts of Snake's Territory here on the Foul Territory now where he has a question for you, Ken. He wants to know who is more likely to receive a qualifying offer from the d Backs. Is Zach gallan Auhenio Suarez? Is Josh Naylor a player who could receive a qualifying offer?

00:16:13
Speaker 1: Jack, this is a good question, and I'll tell you why, and Jack knows why it's a good question. I'm telling the viewers that this is intelligently asked because of this, So the Dotamonbacks when they weigh what they're going to do with the deadline, if they decide to sell, and they have not made that decision, they do not want to be sellers. Mike Caseon has been very clear about that. But if they do, you have to weigh the return that you're going to get into trade versus the draft pick compensation you might get if the player rejects a qualifying offer. Frankly, I would give all three of those guys qualifying offers, and Merrill Kelly as well, because you protect yourself as far as draft pick compensation, and any one of those guys I would want back on a one year, twenty two or twenty three million dollar deal. It might be a little much for Nailer. I guess in particular, first, Baseman is not going to get that much on a multi year in the free agent market, most likely a free agent like him. But at the same time, teams generally operate under the premise no amount of money, well, a certain amount might be bad, but no amount of money is that bad For one year. It lowers your length of time in commitment, and you're just paying for that one year and you're getting a really good player. So I would think that they would give all four qualifying offers. That's what I would do. I'm not sure they are thinking along the same lines, all right.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: So for the Diamondbacks. The next question is for the Phillies. The two teams that faced off against one another not that long ago in the postseason. This is from Matt Frye from our chat BCC group. Hey, Ken, what's the move for the Phillies at the deadline that puts them over the top.

00:17:48
Speaker 3: What do they need to move the needle?

00:17:50
Speaker 1: Matt, I don't know that it's one move. I would expect they're going to be active for multiple relievers and they need a big one. There's no question about that. Alvarado's coming back in August, but he's not going to be eligible for the postseason after getting a ped suspension. They are a team that would be in the mix for all of those controllable relievers in the Ales Central we were talking about Classe and Jax and Duran. David Bednar would be another possibility for them. Any reliever out there is someone that they're going to look at. There's also been talk with them of an outfielder, and it could be someone from their own system. Justin Crawford is someone getting a lot of mentioned. Carl Crawford's son, But ideally it would be someone a little bit more proven, maybe a center fielder that would enable them to move Marsh to left at certain times. I see them being quite active. Dave Dombrowski knows that this team's window does not go on forever. Schwarber and Real mutto free agents after this year. They probably will try to resign both. Then They've got a lot of money coming off the books after twenty six. So they are an interesting team and an interesting place, and I do expect them to be aggressive and active.

00:19:02
Speaker 2: I agree especially with that GM and I love obviously Rob Thompson too.

00:19:05
Speaker 3: I love that team. I love the Phillies. Love the Phillies, Love the Phillies all right, much more to come on.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal, Dude and Dork of the Week is next right after this break.

00:19:14
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00:20:23
Speaker 3: All right, Ken, who's your hero of the week? Dude of the week, if you will.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: It's Kyle Schwarber. Now Alta. I got a call from my friend Harold Reynolds this morning who said, you can't give a guy All Star Game MVP for hitting three home runs off a batting practice pitcher. I understand what he's saying, and Kyle Schwarber was zero for two in the game, but this guy has a clutch dean like no other. And I quoted a few players as saying that in my story. Logan Web said, every time I see this guy. I just think, dude, you are a cool dude. And it is that way with Kyle Schwarber. That's who he is. Three hundred and fourteen career homers in the regular season. Now, well he has a chance for five hundred. He's only thirty two, Kyle Schwarber.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: Due to the week, all right, I am going to quickly make a change here, I'm throwing a curveball. I still believe that the Dude of the Week is Major League Baseball for bringing back the team jerseys. I love the fact that each player is wearing their respective jersey. And I also want to compliment Major League Baseball and Rob Manfred for the swing off. I think that was really fun. We talked about it at the top of the show. Players got into it in an exhibition game, a meaningless game actually ended with a victor.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: I love that.

00:21:30
Speaker 2: My other Dude of the Week is Dino Eble, the batting practice pitcher whose arm is probably going to fall off, not only for you know, waving guys in with the Los Angeles Dodgers as their third base coach, but he must be tired in terms of pitching and did it really really good job for the National League. He is my due of the week for a variety of reasons. Okay, time now for the John Fisher dork of the week.

00:22:03
Speaker 3: Who do you have? Ken?

00:22:05
Speaker 1: I don't know who exactly made this decision, so I can't identify the perpetrator in particular, but the dork of the week is the body or the group of people, or the single person that ruled Brent Rooker out of the first round of the home run derby for a home run that was point ninety six of an inch less than Cal Raley's best shot. They tied with seventeen home runs each in the first round, and then each hit a four hundred and seventy foot home run, and they determined that Raleigh's home run was zero point ninety six less than one inch longer. I want to shore a quote from JJ Cooper of Baseball America and he's on our network as well. He says, m there's pretty much a zero chance the margin of error on the tracking system can accurately measure a difference of an inch in distance on a pair of balls that traveled four hundred and seventy feet. JJ went on to say, if this was the rule, if this was what was established and agreed upon problem. That's what they decided. But then this tweet or post or quote I should say, from Brent Rooker to Susan Sluster of the San Francisco Chronicle. You know, maybe if they have it to the decimal point, they should display that during the derby and not wait till everyone's done to bring out the information that might be helpful. And I know what Brent's saying. It sounded like this was decided after the fact. There are a million dollars at stake here. Now, it was only the first round, but cal Raley went on to win and won a million dollars. Brent Rooker, had he beaten cal Raley in the first round, might have been the guy to get a million. I thought this should have gotten a lot more attention. It was quite curious to me. So MLB, whoever made that call broke of the week?

00:23:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Dallas Brayden, of course, who covers the athletics, none too pleased about how it was so so so close. Rightfully, So, okay, mine is my friend, my former colleague, everybody's favorite lunatic, Chris Russo.

00:23:58
Speaker 1: I put Timmy on FaceTime. Timny, we have tell that people here that the GOP clubs are yours and your.

00:24:04
Speaker 5: Father who pettipon wys it taken out of the airports.

00:24:07
Speaker 6: I get to your clubs the next day and I get out of it.

00:24:09
Speaker 1: They wouldn't let me take the clubs out of paintball.

00:24:13
Speaker 6: Here's no answer.

00:24:14
Speaker 4: It's protocol, sir.

00:24:16
Speaker 1: I am not interested. Did you get arrested?

00:24:21
Speaker 6: Almost the cops came, I said, calm down.

00:24:26
Speaker 2: I love the fact that he told the cops at London Heathrow Airport that he's going to be okay, told the cops to calm down. This is Russo, who I adore, of course, having a meltdown. On ESPN's first take on what am I mad about? He went to Europe over the break, apparently, and I guess there was some travel snaffoos. His clubs got lost. He was playing some of the courses in Scotland or London or England or wherever the heck he went, and he couldn't get the clubs off the plane. Had an absolute meltdown.

00:24:53
Speaker 3: And there you have it. And this is a man who.

00:24:55
Speaker 2: Is obsessed, obsessed with travel patterns anytime I would take a flight. He wanted to know what airport. I was coming out of what the flight was, the size of the plane, who was flying, what seat, window, aisle? He has them all memorized. Oh my god, you do not want to get on Chris Russo's bad side when it comes to travel. All right, for those of you still with us, hello, as we continue here on affair territory with Ken Rosenthal. So what is this I'm hearing Ken about Kyle Tucker to Tampa Bay. Tell me more.

00:25:25
Speaker 1: It's a note I wrote in the Athletic today, my notes column, and it wasn't the first item. It was more speculative than anything else. But here was the logic behind it, if you want to call it logical. Kyle Tucker is from Tampa. The Rays are in the process of getting sold to Jacksonville developer who is going to buy the team from one point seven billion, and presumably we'll have the money to run the team. Now, what is the best move a new owner could make, presuming he is confirmed and approved by the off season. The best move he can make would be to bring a guy like Kyle Tucker home. Now, Kyle Tucker is likely to get I don't know, four hundred million, five hundred million in free agency. The Rays offered Freddie Freeman about one hundred and fifty a couple of years ago, but Kyle Tucker is going to get three times that. So I'm not expecting the Rays to be a player for Kyle Tucker. I just think it would be a really cool move if a new owner could come in and pull something like that off. Can you imagine it would kind of shock the baseball world. The Rays are going back to the Trap next year, that is the expectation. And once they're sold, the expectation as well is that they're going to relocate, possibly to Tampa. That would be the favorite in the clubhouse. In a new ballpark. Well, here's your centerpiece for a new ballpark going forward. It would take a few years, of course, but if you're signing Kyle Tucker, you're signing him for more than a few years. So that was my theory all on it. It's just a theory. It's just speculation. It's not inside information. But I'm adding up too and two and trying to get four.

00:26:58
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, that up two and two and two and two and two and two and two and keep Kyle Tucker and give him the five hundred million that you think he's going to warrant on that free agent market.

00:27:08
Speaker 1: They need to, but I don't know that they will. And the Cubs are a team with what they call clean books going forward. They've only one or two players signed even beyond twenty six if I'm not mistaken. So they have the ability to do it. The question is whether the Ricketts ownership has the will to do it, and that's something that is an open question because we have seen that they have not been willing to kind of get into that kind of contractual situation. They were the team that finished fourth on Alex Reregman, a player that they really could have used, and they were a team that, yes, they paid one hundred and seventy seven million for Dansby Swanson, but they're not a club that steps out and operates the way a team in its market market size should. So my expectation, if I had to guess right now, is that Kyle Tucker is not a Chicago Cub next year. He's more likely to be a Philadelphia Philly or be with some other team than the Cubs.

00:28:01
Speaker 2: Holy cow, there's a lot of folks in our chat right now, specifically Mike G that's saying that you're breaking his heart right before a nice weekend homestand to start the second half. Let me ask you this, though kind of Cubs related, Boston Red Sox are about to find out what they're made of. Ken they have the Cubs, they have the Phillies and the Dodgers. I mean, these are three massive series. How do you think this plays out.

00:28:22
Speaker 1: We're gonna find out a lot. I don't know the answer. And their schedule is the toughest of any teams going forward. I saw a chart on that the other day. I am in Chicago for that series this weekend Fox Game on Saturday night. But you're right, the Red Sox are going to be tested over the next ten days or so and we're going to see a little bit of a clearer picture of exactly who they are now. Bregman is back and that's a good thing for them. That should help them. They need to keep pitching the way they have. That's been the key to this. It's not just Crochet right now, it's BeO and Giolito. So without Hunter Dobbins, who's out now, they're gonna have to another starter. We've discussed this and they're gonna have to keep pitching well a better defense. Raphaela looks like he might be a star, and the other kids are quite impressive as well, so it's going to be an interesting test. They're a talented team. They need to do some things at the deadline, no question, but I am eager to see the Red Sox play. That's the rest of the season, all.

00:29:21
Speaker 2: Right, Ken and aj Prasinski at a game together over the course of the weekend in Chicago. God speed to you, Ken Rosenthal and Ken Rosenthal will be back with the fresh new episode of Fair Territory on Monday. We are done for today. Foul Territory is next. Scott bron and the boys are with you. Thanks for being here.

00:29:38
Speaker 3: Bybye.

00:29:39
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00:29:57
Speaker 3: Triple, or home run. Strikeout.

00:29:59
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